The Rx for the Pharma Supply Chain

When one of the world’s largest consulting firms says that an entire industry’s supply chain infrastructure is “under-utilized, inefficient and ill-equipped to cope with the sort of products coming down the pipeline,” you sit up and take notice.

That’s exactly what PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has written in a review of the pharmaceutical industry.  In its new report, “Pharma 2020: Supplying the Future,” PwC’s authors write that the industry will require a “radical overhaul” in order to meet both the changing requirements of the industry, as well as the larger change in outlook from patient-based to outcome-based approach.

The report predicts that collaboration will have to increase among healthcare partners, making the entire process more efficient.  We couldn’t agree more.  The supply chain environment has exploded into multiple dimensions; today’s supply chain can no longer be run in a linear manner – by the time problems are communicated sequentially through the supply chain, the original conditions and problem have changed. In an environment where any disruption among any of the partners at any level runs the risk of causing disruption at every point, information needs to be communicated simultaneously and decisions need to be made in parallel and often collaboratively. Synchronized, collaborative demand-supply networks are what is required.

PwC writes that “the supply chains for designing, manufacturing and distributing pharmaceuticals and medical devices plus those providing healthcare services will integrate so that all partners can see the full picture and help them plan ahead more accurately and cost-effective.”  In short, we believe they’re saying that pharmaceutical companies’ supply chains will evolve into what we at Vecco refer to as a business network.

The business network is collaborative.  The business network enables companies to create real-time, synchronized multi-partner approaches that solve their global supply and fulfillment challenges. 

Other vertical industries may not need the “radical overhaul” that PwC says pharmaceutical firms require.  But they clearly need to think ahead; what’s worked in the past…what works today…will almost certainly fall behind as the global economy becomes increasingly more inter-connected, and definitely more competitive.   PwC’s spokesman is quoted in the company’s news release as saying, “Companies that recognize information as the currency of the future, will be those that go the final mile and stand out by 2020.”  He’s talking about pharmaceutical firms, of course, but his words clearly apply to virtually every firm out there today.